Extreme heat is a deadly natural hazard that disproportionately affects women in South Asia, who are at greater risk for heat-related illnesses and mortality due to physiological differences, limited access to resources, and societal roles as caregivers. This vulnerability extends to maternal and neonatal health, as extreme heat is linked...

The consumption of unhealthy and environmentally unsustainable diets is a major societal challenge because of its impacts on human health and the environment. The adoption of micronutrient-rich diets with relatively low pressure on natural resources is an important development target at the intersection between sustainability and public health goals. Pulses are known for being...

Many policy makers and academics striving for more gender equality consider joint property rights as preferable over sole rights, since the latter often discriminate against women. Several governments in low-, middle- and high-income countries have therefore imposed joint rights through modifications of statutory law or mandatory joint property registration. We...

Food environments are a critical place within the food system to implement interventions aimed at enabling sustainable diets. In this perspective article, we argue for the need for food environment research to more comprehensively examine the different types of food environments that people access within their communities to ensure that...

This study explores the complex dynamics of Fiji’s sugarcane industry, shedding light on the challenges it faces and the implications for agricultural system resilience and sustainability. The primary aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between climatic and non-climatic stressors and farmers’ decisions to abandon sugarcane farming. A...

Key messages • Potato zero-tillage and rice straw mulching (PZTM) was introduced in the fallow season as a strategy for climate adaptation in Khulna where potato is a new crop to grow.• 56% (239 HHs) of the intervention households adopted PZTM in the following cropping season without any subsidies or...

Rice field ecosystems make up the majority of the agricultural land in the Lower Mekong region (Ingalls et al. 2018). In Cambodia, WorldFish research found that one hectare of a rice field ecosystem can provide enough wild fish and other aquatic animals to feed 2.6 people for a year (Freed...

Women’s empowerment has been associated with improved nutritional outcomes in various settings. However, the gains from empowerment do not necessarily accrue to different members of the same household in the same manner. Furthermore, the relationship between empowerment and nutrition itself is likely to be shaped by the overall level of...

The island of New Guinea is one of the world’s highest diversity areas in terms of its 13,600 vascular plant species. It is also one of the least botanically explored parts of the world, so documentation of the flora is very important. The documentation of palms is as important as...

Water is integral to food systems. Assessing agricultural water [in]security provides a comprehensive understanding of how water influences agricultural development. Water availability varies geographically, but across regions there are marked inequalities in access to and use of water, which are shaped by policy incoherence, poor management and governance of water...

This Country Gender Assessment of the Agriculture and Rural Sectors (CGA-ARS) in Pakistan identifies several gaps, challenges, priorities, and opportunities related to gender equality and rural women’s empowerment. It offers an evidence-informed analysis of rural women’s experiences, challenges and opportunities in the context of sociocultural norms and gendered power dynamics...

Coffee is one of the most important smallholder cash crops in Papua New Guinea. It accounted for $156 million of export earnings, 13% of agricultural export revenues, and 1.4% of total export revenues in PNG in 2021. According to the PNG Rural Household Survey 2023, approximately 55% of sampled households in the...

Demand for wood and wood products within the Asia and Pacific region, and exports of wood products from the region, are growing, particularly through rising interest in the forest-based bioeconomy. Wood supply to meet this demand needs to be sustainable, to address climate change, biodiversity loss, poverty and economic development...

Food security and dietary diversity, defined as providing either physical (availability) or economic (accessibility) access to food, are linked with access to and control over productive resources and is a highly-gendered phenomenon. In Nepal, labor out-migration has increased household income and may have increased people’s ability to access diverse food...

Fruit tree–based agroforestry has been promoted as an alternative farming practice in upland Northwest Vietnam to replace monocultures of staple crops. Although many studies have focused on evaluating the performance of agroforestry systems at the plot level, research on how farmers perceive and evaluate agroforestry considering whole-farm contexts is limited....

Highlights Explores the challenges of steering a largescale climate services innovation project towards greater inclusivity. Maximising customisation options for users and avoiding prescriptive interpretation enables greater flexibility of use. Responsible and inclusive approaches to climate services design are valuable even if adopted once development has commenced. CONTEXT Climate services are integral to climate change adaptation in agriculture. Inclusive...

In 2018, the state of Himachal Pradesh in north India launched an initiative to convert all its farmers to natural farming (NF), an agroecological approach. The aim was to address multiple challenges related to rural livelihoods, high input costs, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. This paper is based on a...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected vulnerable households’ livelihoods in developing countries. Using high-frequency phone survey data from the World Bank, we assess rural Indian households’ vulnerability and poverty status during the pandemic. Results reveal that over three-fifths of Indian rural households are vulnerable to poverty in the...

Ce chapitre traite de deux enjeux majeurs auxquels sont confrontés les ménages ruraux en zone tropicale : préserver les ressources naturelles et assurer la sécurité alimentaire. Relever ces deux défis simultanément requiert de développer des systèmes de production efficaces, capables à la fois de garantir la sécurité alimentaire des agriculteurs...

Adequate, timely and region specific information is an important input for sustainable and profitable agriculture. Krishi Updates is providing digital extension services to the farmers, facilitating communication and outreach activities and organising need-based trainings. Information sources are very vast, and farmers are unable to segregate the information that is most...